Jamie Grierson's evening summary

Nearly 12 hours have passed since that Westminster-shattering exit poll flashed on our TV screens like a bad joke. Perhaps Jeremy Vine has cocked up his CGI? Nope, it’s on Sky too ... well, perhaps the poll will be wrong. Of course, it was wrong. The Tories did even better than the bombshell poll predicted, and Labour fared worse.

Now, for many, Britain looks and feels like a different place, as if emerging from a night in hospital after being treated for concussion. The 11.3 million who voted Conservative may well be snuggling into the security blanket of a majority government tonight. But those voters who didn’t back the Tories are likely left feeling exposed, chilled by the uncertainty about what might unfold. Ripping up the Human Rights Act, bringing in the snoopers’ charter, risking an exit from the European Union.

What will these fundamental changes mean to the future of the country? And what fresh designs will be drawn up for Britain in the corridors of power, as the Conservatives embark on five years of near-unfettered reign?

The big picture

Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and David Cameron at a VE Day service in the wake of the Tory election win Photograph: Dan Kitwood/PA

Big losers of the day

Laugh of the day

Former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown vowed to eat his hat live on air if the exit poll proved to be true. Before you could say “total utter wipeout” someone set up a Twitter account for Paddy Ashdown’s Hat, which has more than 12,000 followers.

Paddy Ashdown's Hat (@paddys_hat)

5000 followers? Seriously? In 45 minutes? THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS, BRITAIN

I don’t know how he does it but after pulling an all-nighter, David Dimbleby is already up and about again, presenting a special post-result Question Time on BBC One.

There are no big-hitters on the line-up - Labour’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, Tory cabinet minister Francis Maude, former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown, Scotland’s deputy first minister John Swinney and columnist Julia Hartley-Brewer all feature - so I’ll just keep an eye on the programme and flag any noteworthy moments.

Johnson contends that Miliband’s chances of picking up the keys to No 10 started to nosedive after last week’s Question Time debate in Leeds.

The West Hull MP says after Miliband refused to accept Labour had overspent during its years in power, the public “became convinced that Labour had indeed driven the car into the ditch and declined to return the keys”.

He says the biggest damage was done on the economy.

We seemed to have no effective riposte to Cameron’s successful distortion of our economic record in government.... As a result it was open season on Labour’s record in office with the economy front and centre.

Johnson says the Labour party seemed determined to disguise its sound economic policy.

And he makes it clear that had the result matched the outcome predicted in so many polls, Labour today would most likely have been sitting down to talks with the SNP.

He says the proposition of a Labour-SNP tie up was “difficult to handle without insulting the intelligence of the electorate” adding “of course left-of-centre parties would at least talk to one another in the event of a hung parliament”.

There, among the mobile studios and microphones, politicians and producers come together in an orgy of feeding. Bits of this tented corner of Westminster resemble a field hospital, which, in a sense, they are.

Recently ousted former MP Simon Hughes offers his opinion the day after the night before. Frantzesco Kangaris for the Guardian Photograph: Frantzesco Kangaris for the Guardian

From the Guardian US Q&A on Facebook, Paul Owen answers a question on how the British election compares to past US ones:

The closest American equivalent I can think of is George Bush winning the 2004 presidential election. American liberals during 2000-04 seemed to feel that Bush was appalling, beyond the pale, and felt sure their fellow voters would agree and would turf him out. But they didn’t agree and he stayed put. British leftwingers have felt very similar about David Cameron’s government over the last five years and are shocked he has been returned to power - and with a majority this time, instead of being in coalition with the centrist Liberal Democrats as happened last time.

Here’s a final dispatch from Shane Hickey at the Guardian live election special.

The Labour party should take six months with an interim head, such as Harriet Harman, before electing the next leader of the party, said Guardian commentator Polly Toynbee.

Speaking on what the left does next following the Conservative victory on Thursday, Hugh Muir said he believed that Ed Miliband should have stayed on for some time longer so that the party could look at what they are now for and who they want to appeal to.

By rushing into an election, he said they were robbing themselves of that.

Here’s more from the Guardian live event on the election from my colleague Shane Hickey.

Discussing what went wrong in polls before the election, the Guardian’s Alberto Nardelli told a discussion that they got the Labour vote share wrong (but not the Green, Lib Dem and UKIP shares) and judged the turnout incorrectly while constituency polls put Labour in a stronger position than the party was in.

Examining areas where the Conservatives came out successful where Labour was expected to win, Nardelli said one theory was that suburban middle class families who were interested in the economy trusted the Tories more.